[NFBCS] Using Visual Studio with a Braille Display

Tue Jan 4 20:59:15 UTC 2022

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the additional information. Are you familiar with JavaScript? I’m finding the documentation from school challenging. The videos aren’t accessible and the course materials are in Google Slides. I was looking at some code examples in Google Slides and couldn’t tell how the text was arranged. I wish they used a different method of delivering their course content. If you or anyone else knows JavaScript and can help that would be great.

In the meantime I will look for examples on the Internet and see if Bookshare has any useful books.

Dan

From: Paul York <paul at yorkfamily.com> 
Sent: Monday, January 3, 2022 1:12 PM
To: dan.tevelde at comcast.net
Cc: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Using Visual Studio with a Braille Display

I'm surprised that others are advising you to use different editors. Microsoft puts a lot of effort into making their editors as accessible as possible. VSCode might be a little behind the "big brother" in this regard, but still should be pretty good. VSCode is very popular right now and incredibly versatile, so I'm not surprised your school uses it. I use it in my courses, as well.

I'm pleasantly surprised that you are getting any support for NVDA in a virtual Ubuntu environment running on Windows. My past experience with running screen readers on virtualized graphical user interfaces has not been great. But if that part is working for you, then there's no reason that VSCode shouldn't be a very accessible option.

Some differences from what I gave above:

  - Ctrl + P then Enter will move you to the text editor regardless of focus.

  - Ctrl + P then type will filter a list of files in the current project. Arrow up or down then Enter to select a file. Super useful.

  - Ctrl + / (forward slash) will toggle comment / uncomment a line or selection. Alternatively you can also use Ctrl + K then C to comment a line and Ctrl + K then U to uncomment a line or selection if the toggle feature is less accessible (these two also work in the full Visual Studio).

I think all the rest is the same as I provided for the full Visual Studio.

Another useful one:

  - Ctrl + F finds text in the current file...this is obviously common but...

  - Ctrl + Shift + F then type will search for text across all files in the current project. You'll then need to mouse over the results (left side of the window) to select one, or you can hit tab six times and arrow up or down. Clicking or pressing Enter will open the editor and place the cursor at the beginning of the "found" text.

Note that VSCode also has a "command palette" which basically consolidates all of the complex menu choices. Hit Ctrl + Shift + P to access this. Type in a partial command to filter the list then Up / Down Arrow then Enter to select. Some of these commands will follow up with prompts for additional information. In Windows these are pretty accessible. Not sure about VSCode running on Linux in Windows. As usual, the ESC key will get you out of most of these dialogs.

Best,

Paul

On Mon, Jan 3, 2022 at 1:15 PM <dan.tevelde at comcast.net <mailto:dan.tevelde at comcast.net> > wrote:

Hi Paul,

This is extremely useful information. The school uses Vscode unfortunately. It runs inside the Ubantu Linux distribution. When I start Windows the computer starts NVDA and then the Linux distribution. You are the first person who has not told me to use a different editor. As much as possible I try using the same technology sighted people do.

Dan

From: Paul York <paul at yorkfamily.com <mailto:paul at yorkfamily.com> > 
Sent: Monday, January 3, 2022 11:12 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org> >
Cc: dan.tevelde at comcast.net <mailto:dan.tevelde at comcast.net> 
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Using Visual Studio with a Braille Display

At least by default, the Home key has a "toggle" function. The first tap moves to just before the first character of a line (i.e., indented). The second moves to the first column of the line (i.e., unindented). The End key always moves to after the last character on the line. So an easy strategy to always get the cursor to just before the first character of a line regardless of your current position is just to tap End followed by Home.  Note that this also works on empty lines if you want to make sure your cursor is at the same level of indentation as the line above. And a strategy for getting to the first column reliably is just End then Home then Home.

Other nice shortcuts that not everyone knows:

 - Ctrl + Right Arrow or Ctrl + Left Arrow to skip to the start of the next or prior word. But this is smarter than normal as it treats delimiters like quotation marks and parentheses as words (very helpful for coding).

 - F7 should always return you to the code window if you find your focus elsewhere.

 - F2 will rename a variable or function name everywhere it is used.

 - Ctrl + X with no selection will cut an entire line of text to the clipboard (or delete it if you don't wish to paste it).

 - Shift+Down Arrow or Shift + Up Arrow selects a line. End then Home then Home then Shift + Down Arrow will reliably select entire line(s).

 - Alt + Down Arrow or Alt + Up Arrow will move an entire line of code up or down. Will also move an entire selection up or down so combine with the above for useful code reorganization.

 - Ctrl + E then C will comment out an entire line (or selection) of code.

 - Ctrl + E then U will uncomment an entire line (or selection) of code.

Step through the "View" menu to find shortcuts to useful "panels", especially the Solution Explorer and Error List.

Note that this is for Visual Studio, NOT the confusingly similar Visual Studio Code. VSCode is slightly different, though most of the above will still apply.

Hope you find it helpful. Good luck with your class!

On Mon, Jan 3, 2022 at 11:24 AM dan TeVelde via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org <mailto:nfbcs at nfbnet.org> > wrote:

Hello All,

I am attending a technical program for web design. Right now I am using
Visual Studio to write JavaScript. For the most part I find the editor
accessible and it has some really useful features. I use a Mantis Braille
display which works well most of the time. I am having some issues with
cursor routing when I try moving the cursor to the beginning of the line. I
could press the home key but then I would be past the text I want to edit.
If I route the cursor sometimes focus leaves the editor window. I hope
someone can help.

Thanks,

Dan

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